“Over the past few days Mr. Ushatskas has made a number of fascinating but somewhat controversial statements… One day he said that Russia should write off 20 percent of Ukraine’s debt as a ‘friendly gesture’ only to say the next that we should not expect any lifting of the EU sanctions as a New Year gift,” Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook on Friday.
9 December 2015, 14:03 GMT
She wondered why Russia should give presents without expecting a return gift in the form of a lifting of the illegal sanctions maintained by the West essentially due to Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk accords.
Maria Zakharova emphasized that even though Ukraine was getting “New Year presents” in the form of millions of dollars each year, “the result of these loans was next to nil, probably because this money was not coming from the heart.”
Vigaudas Ushatskas earlier expressed confidence that the implementation of the Minsk accords would serve as a “unifying factor in EU-Russia relations.”
